


Falling Stars on a Foggy Night

by SpiritedYoungLady



Category: Howl Series - Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Pre-Canon, Young!howl, book!howl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-30
Updated: 2016-01-30
Packaged: 2018-05-17 04:01:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5853295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritedYoungLady/pseuds/SpiritedYoungLady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Have you ever seen a sad-looking kitten in the pet store and thought that maybe, just maybe, you could totally get away with it if you snuck it home and kept it and DAMN THE CONSEQUENCES?<br/>...here, Howl essentially does that with a fire demon. A not-super-detail-oriented-but-still-intended-to-be-canon-compliant short fic that tells the story of how Howl and Calcifer met.<br/>Possibly (?) to be continued.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling Stars on a Foggy Night

The stars were out in full force that night, and Howl watched them intensely. Every minute or so, one would dislodge itself from its place in the sky and hurtle to Earth, shrieking as it fell from the before being softly extinguished by the marsh. As he shivered in the damp and scanned the sky, one streaked past him, less than a hundred meters away. It seemed to slow as it neared the ground, drifting this way and that like a feather in a stiff breeze. I can’t! he thought he heard it say. I don’t want to go! 

Once, he had overheard two witches talking in an inn about how the Star Falling was a wonderful sight. The shorter witch had gesticulated grandly and spoken in colorful phrases, enthralling both her companion and Howl, who sat a few tables over. When she had finished, the plumper witch put her chin in her hands and sighed, “Oh, what I wouldn’t give to catch a falling star!” 

At the time, Howl had agreed with her.

Now, he was cold and wet and wished he had brought a more practical jacket. The stars called to him, begging him for rescue. He stood by, now, as the stars called to him for rescue. He did nothing but watch miserably as they cried out in fear while the marsh extinguished them.

As Howl wondered why he had come at all, another star dislodged itself from the heavens and began hurtling towards him. _Help!_ it wailed, like the others. Howl’s heart pounded against his ribs. This one had seen him. It looked at him with its weakly flickering eyes, and called again. 

_Help me!_

“What should I do?” Howl said, a bit frightened and embarrassed to be talking to a dying star.

_Catch me!_

Howl snatched up his extravagant coat tails in one hand and ran, stretching out his other hand towards the falling star. He was close, but not quite close enough, and now the star flickered mere feet above a murky puddle.

_Catch me! Please!_

Wincing, Howl dropped his coat tails and reached out to where the star hovered, landing hard on marshy earth. He caught it just before it hit the water and held it gently. It smelled of flint and magic and although it was icy-hot, it did not burn. 

_Thank you_ , it said in a thin voice that was more thought than whisper. _I thought I was a goner for a minute there._

“What do I do now?” Howl asked.

 _I need something. Something of yours to keep me alive. Hold me closer and I’ll see what I can find._

Howl held the star away from his body. “I’m a powerful magician,” he warned, “and if you cross me, you’ll regret it.”

The star shook its tiny head. _I’ll take what you can easily spare._

So Howl held the star against his chest. It rushed into him and Howl fell to his knees, gasping for air. His vision blurred around the edges and he felt as if he had forgotten how to breath. There was something new inside him, hot and pulsing and buzzing around his chest like an excited bumble bee. Perhaps this had been a bad idea, but he could not bring any corrective spells to mind through the haze and the pain. He coughed, clutching at his chest, then felt nothing.

When Howl opened his eyes his cheek was pressed against soggy dirt. Vaguely, he thought about how many cleaning spells it would take to fix up his coat after this. He winced and rolled over.

He was alive, which was a relief. He felt calm, but a little bit ill and much colder than before.  
Something glowing hovered over his chest, and Howl cautiously looked down at it. 

The star sat on his chest, staring at him.

Except it wasn’t a star anymore. The colors were the same, and so were the beady eyes, but it was bigger and stronger and now seemed to have a core, around which its flames flickered. Spindly fire-hands tugged at his lapel. “You’re awake again, fantastic. I thought you might have died and I was going to have to eat your coat until someone rescued me.” He squinted at Howl. “Or maybe your hair. I could probably last a long time on your hair.”  
“What?” said Howl, a response admittedly uninspired, but also the best he could manage given the circumstances.  
The star sighed. “I need to eat, and I need to get out of this terribly damp place.”  
“What are you?” asked Howl.  
“Calcifer.” The demon squinted, as if he was thinking. “Yes, that’s it, that’s the name. I’m a powerful fire demon.” He fizzed as a raindrop plopped onto his head. “And what are you?”  
“Human,” said Howl weakly. “Pendragon. Wizard.”  
“Alright, Pendragon, Human, Wizard,” said Calcifer. “Find me some dry wood around here, before I eat your lapel.”  
Howl clambered to his feet and stared longingly at the faint lights of Porthaven, where his home waited for him many miles away. Something was different, something was missing - in his heart of hearts, he knew that something had just gone terribly wrong.


End file.
